Even without the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was going to be challenging for Jacksonville-based Acosta.
The year began with new ownership plotting a new direction for the sales and marketing giant after a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
By the time Brian Wynne was brought in as Acosta’s new chief executive in July 2020, the pandemic had fully taken hold and changed how just about every company did business.
However, Wynne came in with the same mission as any new CEO would have in a normal year.
“The first year is all about making sure you really understand your clients, making sure you understand your team,” Wynne said in an interview a year after joining Acosta.
“We’re using different tools to do the same kinds of things,” he said.
In a typical year, Wynne would be traveling to meet and get to know Acosta’s customers and employees.
Acosta has more than 100 offices and 20,000 employees in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
It is based at 6600 Corporate Center Parkway in Southpoint where it employs 500 people. It is the building visible from Interstate 95 northeast of the Butler Boulevard exit.
Instead of face-to-face meetings, Wynne has of course used Zoom to introduce himself.
“In a way, technology has humanized that even a bit more,” he said about employee meetings.
“You see somebody’s face and likeness in a way that maybe you don’t if you’re in the back of a really big auditorium.”
In meetings with customers, Wynne has used Zoom to find out what they need from Acosta.
“In the context of a pandemic, what are the different needs they might be having that maybe they wouldn’t have had in 2019.”
Acosta’s main business is connecting consumer packaged goods companies with retailers to get their products to shoppers.
“One of the great things about Acosta is we get to represent many of the world’s greatest brands to many of the world’s greatest retailers,” he said.
“We help connect those brands with the people who love those brands.”
Wynne worked with several of those brands before joining Acosta, including 20 years in executive roles with The Coca-Cola Company.
“Brian is a proven leader with a track record of leading CPG organizations by intently focusing on understanding consumers, while building capabilities and business plans that result in increased sales and profits for clients,” Acosta Chairman Grant LaMontagne said in a news release when Wynne was hired.
LaMontagne said Wynne was a natural fit to become Acosta’s CEO.
Wynne said the rebound from the pandemic is creating opportunities for Acosta’s clients.
“Our timing is spectacular because the food service industry right now is exploding as people begin to come back out,” he said.
As a privately owned business, Acosta doesn’t disclose revenue data but it is considered one of the biggest companies in its field.
“We represent brands that sell $50 billion a year in goods through us,” Wynne said.
He said Acosta is “uniquely positioned” to benefit from industry trends.
“We think food service is going to perform exceptionally well over the next couple of years and we’re well positioned to capture a lot of that growth,” he said.
Acosta acquired two companies in June and July called Core Group and Impact Group. These acquisitions expand the company’s capabilities in areas like natural and specialty entrepreneurial brands, Wynne said.
“That was a space we were not as strong in,” he said.
Acosta was founded in 1927 by Louis Acosta as a food broker serving the Jacksonville market. It began expanding with regional offices in the Southeast in the 1970s. When Gary Chartrand took over as CEO in 1996, he grew Acosta into a national player through acquisitions.
Chartrand retired as CEO in 2008. Changing industry trends affected Acosta’s business over the next decade, including a consumer shift away from traditional grocery stores, according to the company’s Chapter 11 filings.
Revenue fell as the industry changed, leading to the bankruptcy filing.
Acosta only spent a month in Chapter 11 from December 2019 to January 2020. It went into bankruptcy with a prepackaged reorganization plan, agreed to by its major creditors, to convert about $3 billion of debt to equity.
“Acosta is in a very different place than it was just a couple of years ago,” Wynne said.
The company is in strong financial shape with little to no debt, he said.
“We’re growing again. We’re growing our revenue, we’re growing our profits. We’re acquiring the opportunity to serve new clients,” he said.
A group of fund management companies became Acosta’s owners as it emerged from bankruptcy.
Court documents showed New York-based Elliott Management became the largest shareholder, appointing five members to Acosta’s board of directors.
Typically in these situations, the ownership group seeks to improve profitability to position the company for a possible sale or an initial public offering.
Elliott’s representatives declined to comment on its investment in Acosta.
Wynne said it doesn’t matter what the new ownership group’s long-term plans are. It doesn’t change what he is doing to build the business.
“My job and the team’s job is to help create value — value for our clients, value for our associates and value for our investors,” he said.
“If we continue to grow and continue to invest properly and continue to build this business into a stronger, better competitor, then the economic returns will flow through to our ownership.”
Although Acosta has taken steps to improve the business, Wynne said there is more work to be done.
“You want to remain constructively discontented. Continue to agitate toward a better place,” he said.
The pandemic may lead to permanent changes in Acosta’s operations.
“I’m not sure we need 100 offices in a post-pandemic environment,” he said.
While many employees are still working at least part time from home, Wynne said Acosta will implement a new approach after Labor Day.
“We’ll be communicating that in the coming weeks,” he said.
Wynne is confident Acosta is headed in the right direction.
“Acosta is a company that’s on the move and is a very different company than it was 2 years ago,” he said.
“I think we have made amazing progress in the last 12 months.”
